Department of Sociology, 1888Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, USA.
Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, 7864Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
Res Aging. 2022 Feb;44(2):123-135. doi: 10.1177/0164027521997999. Epub 2021 Mar 8.
This study examines whether the relationship between children's college attainment and their parents' mental health differs for Black and White parents as they age. Data come from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and multilevel growth curve models are used to assess parents' depressive symptom trajectories. Results indicated that parents over age 50 whose children all completed college had significantly lower initial levels of depressive symptoms than those with no college-educated children. The initial benefit was stronger for Blacks than Whites. Results stratified further by parents' education show that Black parents at nearly all levels of schooling experienced stronger returns to their mental health from children's college completion compared to White parents, for whom only those with a high school education showed an inverse association between offspring education and depression symptoms. The findings underscore how offspring education is a potential resource for reducing disparities in health across families.
本研究考察了随着年龄的增长，孩子的大学学历对黑人和白人父母的心理健康的影响是否不同。数据来自美国健康与退休研究（HRS），使用多层次增长曲线模型来评估父母的抑郁症状轨迹。结果表明，与没有受过大学教育的孩子相比，50 岁以上的孩子都完成大学学业的父母，其抑郁症状的初始水平显著降低。这种初始益处对黑人比白人更强。进一步按父母的教育程度分层的结果表明，与白人父母相比，几乎所有受教育程度的黑人父母从孩子完成大学学业中获得的心理健康回报都更强，而白人父母中只有那些接受过高中教育的父母，其子女的教育程度与抑郁症状之间呈负相关关系。这些发现强调了子女教育如何成为减少家庭间健康差距的潜在资源。
